MadJeff

Don't worry, this is just the stock skin, I'll be changing it later today.

I have a bunch of design work left to do, but the biohaz forums have been converted to InvisionBoard. It will take a little while to get used to the changes, but I think you guys are really going to love the new features. I'll post a rundown of all the cool new stuff this weekend, but start by checking out the My Controls link on the top right menu. You can fully customize the board the way YOU want it to look and feel. Another cool feature is the My Assistant link in the top right as well. Play with them, don't be afraid... :P If you notice any problems, missing posts, glitches or general weirdness please let me know in the Bug Reports/Suggestions forum and I'll get it fixed ASAP. I will change the color scheme (Skin) later today, but I wanted to get this up and running quickly.

The forum will be up and down for about an hour why I do maintanance, as well as a few surprises. Stay tuned...

Seawolf wrote us a great review that I've had sitting on my drive for close to a month, and it is now online for your reading pleasure! Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight Review Sorry for the delay Seawolf. ;)

No, not me... ;)

Hey, did you see who their Employee of the month is? MadJeff makes an appearance! ;)

As many of you have noticed, I've been conspicuously absent the last 3 weeks or so. Besides the fact that I've just plain been swamped with real life lately, to put it bluntly, I was burnt out on the site and needed a break. Fates and Mudd valiantly kept up with things as best they could, and for that I thank them. Great job guys! So, now I'm rested and refreshed and ready to tackle some hurdles this fall, and I thought I would let you guys in on some of the things we have in store for you in the coming months. So grab your favorite beverage and read on.... Staff Additions To start with, we have a new staff member to announce! Mr. Clark has graciously offered his time and expertise and is taking on the new role of TacSim editor/moderator here at Biohaz. We will be expanding our sim coverage into some other areas besides flight, since public demand for this has been so great. I also hope to make another staff announcement in the next few days in another area, so stay tuned for that. Previews/Reviews The LOMAC Preview has been a big hit, and we plan to start doing a LOT more of these types of previews/reviews in the future. I don't know about you, but I tend to get tired of all the quick one-page shallow reviews I see at so many game sites anymore, so we are going to be doing something a little different. You'll find that we tend to be a pretty blunt group of individuals that don't pull punches, so you can rest assured that we will dig deeper and really tell you the pros and cons of whatever we are looking at. I want Biohaz to be know for it's fair and honest product reviews. So as a result, you'll find a lot more in-depth articles on upcoming and newly released sim software and hardware soon. We enjoy doing them for you as much as you enjoy reading them! With that in mind, some of the upcoming reviews that will be rolling off the line in the upcoming days and weeks are a great look at Flight Simulator 2004 by Seawolf, my long-shelved but updated TrackIR review, Part 2 & 3 of our LOMAC preview, and a few other ones that are getting the finishing touches, such as Fates America's Army 2.0 preview. We also have some great new hardware reviews in the pipe. We have a bunch of requests in the pipe and some great stuff on the way thanks to Mudd, and plan on covering a lot more sim-related hardware such as HOTAS, VidCards and more. Sim News Coverage Now that our staff has grown to the point that I don't have to try and cover everything, we should start getting a lot more daily news, but I would still like to bring on a couple of people that handle the newsdesk. This would involve browsing the various newgroups and sites and posting sim-related news. If this is something you would be interested in helping out with please drop me a note at madjeff AT biohazcentral DOT com (fix the email address before you send please) and let me know. Of course, anyone can submit news items, so this is a call to ALL users out there, if you see something newsworthy that others want to know about, by all means PLEASE submit it via the link to the left! Site Issues My #1 concern at the moment is site stability. Our current host TurboWeb is just not cutting it anymore. They've been a very supportive webhost in the past, but unfortunately in this case I think it's a case of growing too big too fast. That, combined with our ever-increasing bandwidth requirements means it's time for a move. So, with that in mind, we are currently searching for a new webhost. If anyone knows a good provider please let me know. Findinga host is easy as there are a million of them, findinga good reliable one is another matter entirely. =) I'm currently looking for a package in the 75-100Gb a month range that can handle *nix sites (no Windows-only hosts). Also, keep in mind this site is supported at the moment out of my pocket, so I cannot afford $100 bucks a month sort of thing either. With that in mind, I'm going to post a PayPal link on the site in the next few days to go along with the CafePress stuff. I've stated from Day 1 that I will NOT beg for money from users, nor will I turn Biohaz into a subscription site. I'll shut the site down before I go that route. Also, I will not plaster ads all over the site. I will however start doing a few unobtrusive ads for products that we have personally tested and approved of to help with bandwidth costs. This is a hobby to me and not a business. However, I won't turn away money. =) If you guys feel we are worth helping out with bandwidth costs, drop us whatever you feel you can spare, or support us through Cafepress. I'll be adding more designs and merchandise in the store over the next few months, so that's another way you can help out. But you won't get any guilt-trips or beg-athons from me on this. =) Site Redesign This one's been in the works all summer. I've been evaluating all the different CMS packages out there trying to find one that will suit Biohaz's growth and layout needs. Now that the additional staff is taking a lot of the load off me, I can start focusing on the technical aspects of the site and get this place cleaned up. The current PostNuke site is too cluttered and is too busy visual-wise. Most of this work will be behind the scenes, but I just wanted everyone to know that there will be site reconstruction in the near future. Instead of doing it all behind the scenes and unveiling the finished product, I want the end users involved with a lot of the decision-making on the new layout, so stay tuned for this in the near future. Well, that's just a quick look at some of the great things the Biohaz crew are working on. All of us are really excited on the ideas and work starting to be put forth and hope you guys like the new changes as well. MadJeff Site Owner/Admin

Sure, we can do just about anything. Money Order direct to me would be fine as well, just contact me PM and I'll get you an address to send it to. :)

Well, after working on and off on this one for months we are finally going live with the brand spankin' new BiohazCentral Cafepress store! You guys have been hollering for hats, shirts and mugs for awhile, so we have our first in a series of designs now online. The proceeds from all the sales go to line my pock.. err, I mean help pay for the site! =) This way we both get something out of the deal, you guys help me keep the site running, and get some great stuff in the process! Above are some samples, but you can check out all the other great stuff at the Biohaz Store. I will be adding some other products as we get some more designs completed. Also, feel free to request something if you don't see anything you need. Be sure to send us some pics if you purchase anything, I want to see the stuff in action! 8)

Boz, just send it up, we'll host it as well...

Yo, email me at madjeff@biohazcentral.com and let's see if we can get something worked out...

Sorry bud, we've had a rather bad few weeks around here with RL and the website problems the past week. I have been anable to even contact Mudd the last week or so to see how Part 3 has been coming. Unfortunately, I have been unable to do anything on my end with all the other things going on in my life at the moment. Be patient, they will come. But don't forget, this is a hobby to us, and unfortunately our paying jobs come first. ;)

Just wanted to drop a quick note to all while I can. Seems we've been having some rather serios name resolution issues the last 4-5 days and a lot of us (me included) have not been able to hit the site. This has been due to several issues such as a massive DOS attack on my host's network, as well as a few other things. I've had some rather serious discussions with my provider today and if things do not turn around in the next few days we will be in for a move soon. I apologize to all for the inconvenience, and hopefully things will settle out in the next few days. Please spread the word as I know people have been asking about what the hell's been going on... ;)

Try it now, I seem to be getting name resolution to all subdomains and email now. It's amazing what a little yelling can accomplish...

Anyone picked one of these up yet, I hear they are damn good overclocking cards and you can get them damn near 9700 performance and still be rock-stable. HardOCP Radeon 9600 Review

I'm DLing it now and we'll get it posted later tonight.

Unfortunately RL has got in the way the past week or so, but I hope to start working on it this week.

The file has been restored and is now available in the downloads. Thanks RareBear!

Guys, don't worry about it, we won't be shutting down the images, although we will probably not be running 200 images at a time. ;) Mudd, how about we do 10 or so picks a week and then we'll rotate them. That way people get their fix and we don't pass 80Gb in pic traffic in a month? As far as requests go, I also think we can handle that, and the staff can do it as time permits. It was not my intent to shut down the flow of new pics boys and girls, and I apologize if that's how it looked. But since there's so many sites doing pics now, we'll try to just put up stuff you haven't seen everywhere else. That way we don't waste bandwidth on images everyone else has seen 20 shots of already, and you get your weekly dose of LOMAC goodness.

Excellent work as usual Volks!

Just checked it out, the file is missing for some reason, and I can't seem to find it on the net. If anyone has this can they email me the file so I can get the download fixed?

I played it last night and was impressed. They messed with the interface just enough to make it better, the graphics are twice as detailed as the original. All in all based on the demo, I give it a :thumbup:

Sorry, you only get one per day... ;) I've ran several large community websites since, well since the web's been around. I used to run a VGA Planets host site for years, and at one point was the biggest VGAP site on the net. I've done a few smaller business sites as well, but I'm by no means a "professional". As you can tell by the sometimes rough edges on the current site. :D I currently use a open source CMS called Postnuke, although I am in the process of evaluating several other options at this point. I feel we are outgrowing Postnuke and it's just to limiting in regards to how I want to organise and display the content. My host is a great company called TurboWeb at www.turboweb.net. They have some great prices and have been really good to work with. I highly recommend them. The domain I purchased before I moved to Turboweb, but they do it all there. Damn, sounded like a commercial... None, it's all me, baby. Actually that's not true, Fates has helped out with some of our graphics needs like the top header logo and such. I've been lucky the last few months in gathering some great staff here so I can start focusing on the technical aspects of the site, while they help with the content. We've had some great new additions such as MrMudd and a few others that will be announced in the next week that will really add some depth to our content. Not to mention some great forum staff and my good buddy Fates helping out with whatever is needed. Sorry, got off track there for a minute. So to answer this one, I did the design and CMS install, but Turboweb will do a CMS and forum install as part of their package. What?! You have Biohaz, why would you need to do your own LOMAC site? ;) Seriously, if you have any other questions just feel free to ask.

Click on the image size you want in the gallery and the full-size image will load. Then just right click and save to desktop, well if you are using Windows that is. ;)

Moses, it's a great offer but the practicality of it wouldn't work well. I'm going to work on the bandwidth thing over the next few months as we start ramping up the site more, so it should be a non-issue soon. I do appreciate the offer however, thanks! :D